Sunday, June 27, 2010

I have 2 friends that were virgins. Baking virgins, that is! Cookies, cakes, pastries, all new stuff to them… Poor things, they had no idea!… I’m talking of not knowing what a pinch (of salt) means. I’m talking about not knowing what creaming butter is or the difference between mixing and whisking. Really, they needed help! They needed a big sweet help!

I offered to give them a basic baking class, because I believe that a person that can bake cookies is a happier person! Cristina took the pictures and Sandra was the hands-on girl. Check out our fun afternoon while these girls lost their baking virginity!

Fisrt things first. Let’s talking about the recipes. At this point they still didn’t believe they were going to be able to bake those things!

Sandra got right into action making the sugar cookies! I’m drying her sweat with a towel, she was not used to that kind of effort!

Nothing like putting your hands in the dough! Work it girl, work it! You can do it!

Sandra had those cookie cutters since last Christmas waiting to be used, in case you were wondering why we were doing snow flakes cookies in the Summer. I guess she’ll bake lots of cookies this Christmas now that she learned!

Mix the butter with the sugar, add the egg whisked with the vanilla. Mix the flour with the baking powder then add to the butter-sugar-egg mixture. Mix just until well incorporated. Take to the fridge for a couple of hours. Roll the dough, cut in the desired shapes and bake in a pre heated oven at 180ºC (350ºF) for about 8-10 minutes.

By special request of the girls we did “Areias”. These are very popular cookies here in Portugal and the name can be translated to “sand cookies”. They’re like a shortbread kind of cookie flavoured with lemon and covered with cinnamon sugar.

Mix the softened butter (but not melted) with the sugar. Add the flour, lemon zest and salt. Mix with your hands or with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, just until it all comes together. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Roll little balls and bake them in a 180ºC (350ºF) preheated oven. They should take about 10 minutes to bake. When they’re out of the oven and when they’re still hot (but not so hot you’re gonna burn yourself) dip them in a bowl of cinnamon sugar and shake the excess with your hands.

We also baked some oatmeal cookies. These were like an “everything cookie”, we added lots of add-ins. Cinnamon, coconut, all kinds of seeds, they had it all… I wanted to show the girls the kind of things they could add to drop cookies.

* Chocolate powder is highly available in Portugal and used more than actual cocoa powder. It’s a mixture of cocoa powder, with sugar, vanilla and emulsifier. If you want to make it with cocoa powder, just use a bit less (1/3 cup) and you might wanna add a bit of vanilla too.

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the melted butter and mix well. Add the powders (flour, salt, chocolate and baking powder) and mix to incorporate. Finally add the boiling water mixing softly until you have a nice uniform batter that will be less thick than most cake batters because of the water. Scoop the batter into muffin cases and bake in a 180ºC (350ºF) preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean. We had some cinnamon sugar left from the “Areias” and sprinkled that on top before baking them, it adds a nice crunch.

Last but not least we made scones! These are British style scones and are my absolute favourites! In fact from all the things we baked, scones were the girl’s favourite thing! The recipe came from an old book, I can’t even credit it. I’ve been using this recipe for ages…

Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) with a whisk. Add the yogurt and softened butter. Mix with your hands (you should not over mix) until it’s all combined. If the dough is a bit dry add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk. If the the dough it to wet add a bit of flour. The dough should be dense but soft and not stick. Roll it high (2.5cm - 1 inch) and cut your scones with a round cookie cutter. Bake in a preheated oven (200ºC - 400ºF) until they’re just golden brown on top.

So here they are, all our baked goods and the two (very proud) not baking virgins anymore!

I'd say you're the perfect person to lose your baking virginity to. You made it look easy, fun, and tasty. I always say that there are plenty of simple baking recipes out there that are really easier than cooking. Baking is so pleasantly formulaic.